Fascinated by space? Me, too. That’s why I love fun scifi stuff, especially tools that let you explore low earth orbit. According to NASA, “low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with an altitude between 160 kilometers and 2,000 kilometers. […] The orbital velocity needed to maintain a stable low Earth orbit is about 7.8 km/s, but reduces with increased orbital altitude.”
Other than the Apollo moon missions, all manned space flight has taken place in LEO. Satellites in LEO help us get better weather reports and simplify other Earth-based jobs like farming. It’s important to remember that along with manned space missions and satellite, there are many pieces of man-made debris in LEO. In fact, now there are stronger rules about launching rockets than before, and missions to ‘clean’ LEO from space debris.
Check out this tool – a LEO orbit visualization app that lets you see where different satellites are at any given moment. I spent quite a bit of time zooming around, and you will, too!
Low Earth Orbit Visualization
Cool stuff like this is what science fiction and science are all about. Get curious, explore, chase after something that inspires you! After you do that, please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend! 🙂
